Swachh Bharat Mission meet: Congress CMs attend, BJP’s give a miss

BENGALURU: The Congress appears to be more keen than the BJP or any other party in implementing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Swachh Bharat mission, if a meeting of a chief ministers’ sub-group on the subject is any indication.

All the three Congress CMs in the sub-group set up by Modi to finalise the implementation of the Swachh Bharat mission, were present for the third meeting held in Bengaluru on Wednesday, which was skipped by BJP chief ministers of Maharashtra and Haryana and the CMs of Bihar, West Bengal, Delhi and Sikkim. The group, chaired by Andhra Pradesh chief minister and NDA ally N Chandrababu Naidu, is planning just one more meeting in New Delhi before presenting its report to the PM by August 15.

Karnataka’s chief minister Siddaramaiah, who made the opening remarks at the meet, made no bones about his support for the programme, though he had earlier declined to chair this sub-group, as proposed by Modi. Siddaramaiah said: “Our government supports the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India in the Swachh Bharat Mission with the objective to achieve universal sanitation coverage, improved cleanliness and make India open defecation-free by 2019.”

Harish Rawat of Uttarakhand and Lal Thankawla of Mizoram also endorsed the mission and its importance. However, neither of the two BJP CMs in the group -- Devendra Fadnavis and Manohar Lal Khattar -- made time to attend the meet.